We loaded up everything two days early to get a good pit area. Wednesday night was very cold and the firewood came in handy. Henderson is the perfect place to camp in the desert. Enjoy the outdoors in the day and a good meal in the casino at night. Thursday was a shopping day for Cheryl. We went to Las Vegas for Cowboy Christmas– 30,000 sq’ of clothes, truck, trailers, horse tack all connected with western living and rodeos. Kurt said it all just “smelled like cow shit” to him. Rachel our youngest, she just turned 1, slept through the whole thing.
Back to racing. At Friday’s contingency the crew went to work on the truck while I made breakfast for everyone. We loaded up the truck and got in line in front of the Henderson Chamber of Commerce. The drivers’ meeting was at 7:30 where we saw a couple new videos from Sopwith Motor Sports. The only thing new there was that Casey is having more problems with permits and that was why this race’s mileage was cut in half.
On Saturday at 6:30am the quads and bikes were already racing and next went the jeeps and stock vehicles. The whole pit crew and I got to watch everything right in front of our trailer. At 1pm it was time to pre-stage. We lined up next to Trailready Beadlocks. Stewart said that they had a new engine- $27,000.00 and a new trans- $4,000.00. They were ready to go. Pre-race expense for our truck was a new fuel pump, two new tires, new foam for the fuel cell, panty hose for our prefilters, and a re-weld to fenders- $600.00. I spent more than that on beer and food. This was my first drag race, side-by-side start. It looked like a lot of fun but going from 0 to 90 mentally would not work for me. I needed to feel the truck under me first for about 5 minutes then I am ready to go. So, I backed off just a little and the Trailready guys were gone.
There were a lot of spectators there and on both sides of the track. The truck was running great and we finished the first lap in 1 hr 20 mins, exactly what we estimated. The second lap was around 1 hr 19 mins and everything was still running good. We were not pushing the truck too hard because we had never finished Henderson. On the third lap it was Stewart’s time to finish the race. We got about 20 miles out and got the first flat tire. It was dark and the headlights were working pretty good but the dust and dirt was just hanging in the air. We couldn’t see through it. We went off course a couple of times at the dry lakebeds but the GPS got us back on the track quickly. We were almost finished when 2nd gear went out. We had this happen before so we knew not to even slow down. With one mile to go we lost 3rd gear. It wasn’t a problem since it was all downhill from there. We finished around 7pm. Fifth in class. Another great day in the desert. Thanks to Casey, BITD.
Lost Boys Racing 